This invention relates to a method and apparatus for installing cabling such as data cables and telephone cables. More particularly this invention relates to a method and apparatus which greatly facilitates the installation of cables in buildings.
The installation of cables in buildings such as office buildings is a very important aspect of modem building construction. With the use of computers, data terminals, credit card verifiers, telecommunication systems, and the like being so commonplace in buildings, the installation of the cables needed for such systems has become an extremely important aspect of both new construction and old building renovation. Modem offices often utilize duplex wall fixtures which contain outlets for both telephones and computer networks. And, older buildings which undergo renovation for new tenants, or simply undergo modernization, must have cables installed as part of the upgrading process in order to compete for tenants.
The installation of cables is a rather labor intensive process and ordinarily requires that cables be run or xe2x80x9cpulledxe2x80x9d from a central closet or computer room to the locations of wall outlets. Typically, a new office building will have at least one, and perhaps two duplex outlets on each wall. Each duplex outlet would likely have both a data cable and a voice cable pulled from a central room or closet to the outlet. Thus, in a simple office having four walls, with one outlet on each of two walls, there would be two outlets requiring four cables to be pulled from the closet to the office. On a given floor in each building, there may be any number of offices, each requiring four cables. Since it is far easier to install the cables during the initial construction stage of a building, the tendency is to install more cables than will be needed, in order to create flexibility into the possible layout of the office, especially in offices designed for high density modular furniture.
Large spools of cables are generally placed in the central room, and the cable is generally pulled from the spools, through the ductwork or chase through ceiling space or raised flooring to the particular office location according to the building plan. Generally an installer will start with the farthest room first and work toward the shortest pull. However, the pulling order used by the installer usually does not coincide with the numbering order of the outlets on the plans. In other words, outlet number one may not necessarily be the first cable pulled. In fact, this would most likely be coincidence rather than intentional.
Once the cables are pulled, the ends of the cables in the offices are readily recognizable by referring to the outlets, since both on the plans and on the outlets and sometimes even the walls, the outlets are numbered for reference. This helps maintain a degree of consistency so that one can tell which outlet in a telephone system, for example, should be wired to a particular terminal on the central telephone unit.
Unfortunately, the ends of the cables in the xe2x80x9ccomputer roomxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctelephone closetxe2x80x9d are generally merely cut to a length sufficient to enable connection at any location in that room or closet, and the installer moves right on to the next cable pull. This leaves a large quantity of excess cable which eventually will be cut off at the proper length. However, the ends are often not marked in any way or are simply marked with a piece of tape, so that when the telephone or computer network installer arrives to install the necessary hardware, he must determine which end in a large bundle of taped ends is associated with which outlet. This is usually a trial and error step which can be very time consuming, particularly in large closets with hundreds of cables running to different offices. Thus, even when the ends of the cables are marked in some way, the markings are often lost or mislabeled. Although a different color cable is ordinarily used for data cables than for voice cables, and this helps to reduce the selection process, much is left to trial and error in the overall process. In addition, it is not unusual for the number of outlets or the numbering of the outlets to change after plans are drawn, or even after cables are pulled, and this can contribute to confusion in the computer room and errors in the installation.
Regardless of how the cables have been pulled and identified in the past, the hardware installer has been obliged to work with a random array of numbered cables, which still had to be terminated or connected in a specific order.
Thus, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for installing cabling in buildings.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for installing cabling which greatly reduces the time required to properly connect cables.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for installing cabling which provides a cable numbering at the closet end of the cables which corresponds to the numbering of the respective cable outlets.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a method for installing cabling in a building which facilitates installation of the cables in an orderly manner.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method for installing cabling in a building in which the cables are arranged in a neat and orderly fashion, improving the appearance of the work and the labor costs involved in the installation.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for installing cabling in a building which facilitates pulling the cables in a desired sequence and enables reordering that sequence after the cables have been pulled.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for installing cabling in a building whereby cables may be pulled from spools and numbered as they are pulled.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for numbering cables during installation of the cables in a building, and permitting easy changing of the numbering after the cable has been pulled.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which enables multiple cables to be pulled to different outlets simultaneously while maintaining the desired numbering of the cables.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention when considered with the accompanying drawings and claims.
According to the present invention, there is provided a cart for carrying a plurality of spools of cable to be used in the cabling process. The cart is highly flexible, and capable of supporting the spools at different heights according to the particular cable run being pulled. The cart is supported on wheels so as to be easily movable to suitable locations, and the cart carries at one end a pair of vertical upright support members. At their lower ends, the upright members may be provided with adjustable, ground engaging feet which can be lowered into contact with the floor to stabilize the cart while the cable is being pulled.
At the upper ends of the upright members, a height-adjustable frame carries one or more cable guide members. The cable guide members are a particularly important part of the invention, and comprise a plurality of strips of rigid material, such a wood, plastic, or the like which are assembled and secured together. These guide members are provided with a plurality of circular openings of a diameter slightly greater than the outside diameter of the cable being pulled in the building. Each of the openings in the guide member is provided with a unique identifying indicia, for example numbers numbered sequentially, starting with 1 and continuing until all of the openings are numbered.
When the installer starts to pull cable to the first outlet, he determines the number of the outlet from the plan, and then inserts the cable into the opening numbered the same as the outlet, and then pulls the cable through the guide member, and through the walls, chases, ducts, ceilings, etc., until reaching the desired outlet. As the cable is pulled, the spools unroll, paying out cable as needed. The remote cable end is then installed, or at least secured, at the outlet numbered according to the plan, and the installer returns to the closet and cuts the cable at a point so as to leave sufficient cable to reach the desired location in the closet. The closet end of the cable remains in the guide member.
The process is repeated with the next piece of cable passing first through the numbered opening into cable guide corresponding to the number of the outlet being run, and is then pulled to the next outlet to be cabled. The process continues until all cables have been pulled from the cart, through the guide member to the desired outlet.
An important feature of the method is to remove the cable guide member from the closet-ends of the cables, while leaving the identifying indicia on the ends of the cables. This allows reuse of the cable guide member in other closets or rooms, while the identification remains intact at least until the hardware installation is completed.
According to one way of accomplishing this, the cable guide members are preferably provided with a strong, flexible covering sheet releasably secured to one of the faces of the guide members. This covering sheet is made of a material such as leather, or a suitably strong synthetic material, and is perforated by the same number of holes in the same locations as in the guide member. The numerical identifying indicia for the openings is preferably visible on both sides of the covering sheet, but the numbering sequence is reversed on opposite sides in order that the each opening has the same identifying number on each side of the flexible sheet.
The covering sheet is removably secured to the face of the guide member in any well known manner, for example by a hook-and-loop fastener or a releasable adhesive. Once all of the cables have been pulled, the rigid guide member may be removed, leaving the flexible sheet in place on the cables. This provides a numerical identifying indicia for each of the cables which corresponds to the outlet numbers. The covering sheet may be left permanently on the cables if desired, or may be removed once the installation of the hardware is completed and all connections have been made. Because of the flexibility of the covering sheet, the cables may be tightly bundled and the bundle may be pulled through a conduit, if needed, with the covering sheet in place on the cables. Or, the cable may be pulled through a wall, a cabinet, or other such structure.
In this manner, not only are the cables identified by the indicia, but they are now also arranged in an ordered array, according to the identifying indicia. Sometime the order will simply be 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . n wherein xe2x80x98nxe2x80x99 is the highest number of the indicia, but the order may also depend upon the particular equipment being installed, in which case the order can be custom configured for the equipment.
In an alternative embodiment, multiple covering sheets may be used over a cable guide member, so that after the cables have been pulled, the cables may be separated into smaller groups as indicated by the particular covering sheets. This can be particularly helpful in the case of data cable installation for some networks.
In still another embodiment, a pair of similar guide members may be mounted side-by-side, or one above the other, on the vertical upright members. One guide member can be used for data cables and the other for voice cables. Typically, voice and data cables would be of different colors. In this manner, by inserting the end of a voice cable through a numbered aperture in one of the guide members, and the end of the data cable through the same numbered aperture in the other guide members, the installer can pull both the voice and data cable to the same outlet at the same time. This facilitates installing both data and voice cables into duplex outlets, and greatly reduces the amount of time needed for such installations.
Of course a numbered guide member may also be used and left in place on the cables if desired, or multiple guide members may be joined together during cable pulling, and then separated into discrete groups after the cables have all been pulled.